Sugar Skulls

A recent theme I have been enjoying in my creations is Day of the Dead style art.  This all started with one little charm swap that I recently participated in.  While researching, I learned a lot about this holiday and found tons of inspiration in the theme.  It also reminds me to celebrate my ancestors, who have passed and I don't think I do that enough. 

While shopping one day at a big box store I noticed some paper mache skulls that were on sale in the Halloween section.  I did not purchase them at that moment.  Upon going home, I could not get the idea out of my head to create my own "sugar skull" with one of these.  I went back the next day and bought two skulls all for the bargain price of three dollars.  I knew I wanted to incorporate some flowers for dimension, so I also bought a few stems that were on sale.  Here is what I created.

I started by simply coating the skulls with a very heavy duty gesso.  I then aged the skulls with a "magical potion" that was given to me by a colleague at work.  I have no idea what it is, I only know that it is a homemade concoction that she uses in her Mexican folk art.  It provides the perfect aged look to any piece. 

I then planned out my use of flowers and glued them on.  Very simple really.  

Then came the stickels, and I mean a lot of stickels.  I wanted these pieces to have a lot of texture and a bit of shine, so this is the medium I decided to try.  This took some time and some patience.  Stickels take a long time to dry, so I could only add a little "doodling" at a time, for fear of messing it up.  I did not plan the whole design out, just added my different line patters bit by bit.  



I hope this entry inspires you to try something new with stickels or skulls.  I am truly amazed that my perception of skulls has changed so much due to learning more about Day of the Dead and by creating beauty from something I would not normally gravitate too.  Because of this project, I am also using stickels in a few more works in progress and I am really happy with the results.  What do you think???

Cheers,

Rhea